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Sketching Froanna

Emma Margetson

Programme notes

This 8-channel composition is in response to the sketch Froanna by Wyndham Lewis. Considering the lines, colours, shapes, and shading of the sketch this composition uses close-up microphone recordings of chalk on paper with blue noise and electronic sounds to transport the listener to an abstract interpretation of the emotive content of the work… a portrait of Lewis’ wife, Froanna. Follow the gestural strokes of chalk on paper… What do you hear? What do you see?

… a perpetual gaze…
… a clasped posture…
… a wife who was hidden from view…
… intensity…
… a sense of strain…
… an unfolding from the colour…
… blue…

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Sketching Froanna was realized in 2019 at the Electroacoustic Music Studios of the University of Birmingham (England, UK) and premiered on May 14, 2019 during the Nocturnes: A Woman Refigured event as part of the Barber Lates series in Birmingham. The piece was commissioned by The Barber Institute of Fine Arts.

Premiere

  • May 14, 2019, Nocturnes: A Woman Refigured, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts — University of Birmingham – Photograph Room, Birmingham (England, UK)
  • Composer(s): Emma Margetson
  • Year of composition: 2019
  • Duration: 9:37
  • Instrumentation: 8-channel fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • Commission: The Barber Institute of Fine Arts
  • ISRC: CAD502410052